Executive impersonation is a social engineering tactic in which an attacker pretends to be a CEO, director, or other senior leader to borrow authority and push people into acting fast. The goal is not usually to hack a system directly, but to influence someone into approving a payment, sharing data, changing account settings, or bypassing standard checks.
This matters because many organizations give senior voices extra trust, especially when a request sounds urgent or confidential. In real attacks, impersonation may happen by email, phone, messaging apps, or a fake domain that looks like an internal address. Defenses include verifying requests through a separate trusted channel, using dual approval for sensitive actions, training staff to challenge unusual urgency, and keeping approval workflows strict even when the message appears to come from the top.